Foreign preference

Sep 12, 2025 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Guyanese had some strong ideas about who in the current political crop has failed them. On polling day, Guyanese made a statement of their rejection of local political groups, and their leaders. Two weeks after the elections, low voter turnout has already attracted many commentaries, analyses, and positions. We take the simple position that disgusted voters who felt betrayed sent their message of condemnation by not voting. In their thinking, surely, this great oil wealth must mean more for Guyanese, starting with those who grasp at straws to exist. Something is clearly wrong, whatever it is, that made Guyanese stay out of polling stations. Meanwhile, a globally recognized entity did its own analysis of the elections’ outcome, and came up with its interpretation of the parties that contested in the elections.

S&P Global is a trusted, well-known name in several fields, including analytics of global capital and commodity markets. No sooner commodity is mentioned than oil takes centerstage. Guyana has copious quantities of oil that has made it the buzz of the world. Guyana also has a terribly one-sided oil contract that overwhelmingly favours American oil supergiant, ExxonMobil. That contract has made Guyana the laughingstock of neighbours, allies, and friends. Indeed, the ExxonMobil contract is such a cancer that it now eats away at Guyanese, and pit them against one another. Those who shut their eyes and stuff their ears on the repulsive nature of the terms and conditions of the contract are on one side. Those who seize every opportunity to tear the ExxonMobil contract apart are on the other. Where politics and ethnic loyalties were mainly responsible for dividing Guyanese before, now the politics of oil drives a wedge between Guyanese.

What we extract from the S&P Global analysis of the completed elections is that the PPPC victory has eased tensions that ExxonMobil’s executives may have harboured. According to S&P Global, that electoral victory is the best development from the perspective of the oil companies, with ExxonMobil foremost. Though the international heavyweight didn’t come right out and say it, that was obvious. The PPPC Government that returned to power will not touch the 2016 ExxonMobil oil contract. The contract is nauseating and disgraceful, but the same PPPC that once was loud in condemning it in the most powerful terms now loves it. The returning PPPC isn’t going to touch that vile oil contract, which made it the darling of the international investor community, and the party leaders the prized sweethearts of ExxonMobil itself.

To its credit, the leaders of the PPPC showed some nimbleness in their dealings with ExxonMobil, manifested a keen awareness of the lay of the land, and displayed a sure hand in what it takes to stay in power. The 2025 winners did speak of oil, but in a way that would persuade and comfort even the most critical of oil partners. Acceleration of oil and gas exploration is the safest and soundest strategy, a nonthreatening position. ExxonMobil couldn’t have done better, couldn’t have been more pleased. When space is dominated by acceleration of such exploration, two areas of great sensitivity and significance to ExxonMobil and, by extension the US, are neatly sidestepped, pushed onto the backburner of consideration.

Doing something about that crippling ExxonMobil oil contract was always off the table. It did not even merit a small mention, if only to keep ExxonMobil on its toes. Why play with fire, why push ExxonMobil to look suspiciously and unhappily at the PPPC and its elections postures? Silence reigned relative to the 2016 oil contract, because to approach that issue could be self-destructive. Then, there was the issue of the regulatory environment, which could be used as a vise on ExxonMobil. Again, PPPC leaders wouldn’t touch, stayed as far as they could from even hinting at a different regulatory regime to bring ExxonMobil into line.

The APNU, AFC, and others didn’t have such standing with ExxonMobil. They weren’t going to trouble that contract, notwithstanding the AFC’s late claim that it was going to do so. In the PPPC, ExxonMobil had a group that had already sold-out Guyana’s interests. Those are usually the best collaborators for oil companies. The opposition had no chance, didn’t even try.

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Contract, Editorial, ExxonMobil, Foreign preference, PPPC

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